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Clean Energy Funds for the Developing World Announced

Jen van

Many Hats, Inhabitat

With all of the climate talks, protests, and stunts during the Copenhagen UN summit on climate change, you may have missed an announcement about funds for clean energy in the developing world. Secretary Steven Chu of the US Department of Energy announced a $350MM from the Major Economies Forum to launch the Climate Renewables and Efficiency Deployment initiative (Climate REDI), focused on four key areas of development:

The Solar and LED Energy Access Program: deploying affordable solar home systems and LED lanterns as an alternative to polluting kerosene.

The Super-efficient Equipment and Appliance Deployment Program: harnessing the market power of major economies to improve incentives for buying and using energy-efficient appliances.

The Clean Energy Information Platform: establishing an online platform for major economies countries to share best practices of technical resources, policy experience and infrastructure for clean energy technologies.

The Scaling-up Renewable Energy Program: providing policy support and technical assistance to low-income countries under the World Bank's Strategic Climate Fund.

The Major Economies Forum is long on the idea that technology is a potential accelerator to solve for climate change, with a focus on rapid deployment and scale. Yet several social entrepreneurs, NGO workers, and scientists have spoken of the need to not replicate a developed world model of technology based on rapid obsolescence, cheap component parts, and scale for scale's sake. In the wake of complicated discussions in Copenhagen, what do you think about a technology-led initiative from larger economies?